Claire's Diary
by KikisFanficService
Summary: This story is written in diary format: first person and the fictional date will be written in it. There is no set schedule of my updates, but I will not just leave it forever, It will be finished eventually unless I die or something. My OC and her family are mine and so is Phoenix Dale. Everything else is JKR's. F/R/R encouraged. Thanks! Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

July 16, 1994.  
Hello, Diary.

It's my last day here in America. Tomorrow we'll be moving to Crewe, England because my dad found a job there working with trains or something. Apparently Crewe is well-known for the railway..? Riding trains isn't extremely common in America, but I hear that it's a regular thing in the UK so that's cool I guess.

I don't really care about the trains or anything to be completely honest. What I do care about is that I only have one more night to hang out with Sydney (my best friend). She's coming over to spend the night in a couple hours and I've been pretty bored today so I thought that I'd get out this Diary that I've never written in and document my experiences of moving. Plus, I don't think I'll have much to do when I'm in Crewe so I'll probably pour all of my dumb teenage thoughts into this Diary.

So, Diary. I think we'll need a little bit of a background. I haven't even introduced myself yet. How rude! I'm so sorry. My name is Claire Steelman. I'm 14 years old, I have brown curly hair (it's pretty long but I think I might cut it when we get to England), I wear big giant black dorky glasses (that I hate and the only reason I have them is because they were the only ones that came free with my insurance), my eyes are blue, I have ears that are too big so I pierced them in an effort to look a bit better, I have very thin lips, I like to wear eyeliner from time to time, and I'm a witch.

I bet if you could talk or think, you would be saying, "Wait, what?! Witch?" Yes, I am indeed a witch. It's exactly as it sounds. I can do magic! And I'm the only witch in the family. Everyone else in my family (my mom, my dad, my older brother Max, and my younger sister Jenna) are what we magical people call "muggles". It means that they can't do magic. It's probably really lame being a muggle. I remember when I didn't know... It seems like so long ago now when in reality it was only 3 years ago. But since I was born from two muggles, I'm what people in the magical world call a "muggleborn".

Now, I know this is probably a lot to take in. It was a lot for me, too. But, you'll get used to it.

Anyway. I'm moving tomorrow, so the thing that I'm super nervous about is going to a new school... Here in America, I go to a school named Phoenix Dale Academy for Magical Learning. I mean, I'm not super popular or anything, but all my friends are there. I have one best friend named Sydney who I mentioned before. Other than Sydney, I don't think I'll miss that many people. There were a few friends I had in my house that were pretty cool but I think after a couple months, they'll probably forget me. I'm just worried that I won't fit in at my new school or everyone will think I'm a freak for being American or everyone will think I'm weird for transferring at such a weird time. Fourth year, what a weird time. I mean, I'm used to Phoenix Dale, so this new place will be all new to me!

I figure I might as well write about Phoenix Dale since this Diary is new and everything. All students are separated into one of three houses. The jerks, the jocks, and the nerds. I, of course, was in the nerd category because we all know that I don't like sports very much. I played softball as a kid, but that's a muggle sport, so I didn't really qualify to be a jock.

Ah, I'm just joking. The three houses are actually Nordon, Polliver, and Dunicor. I was in Dunicor. Sydney was also in Dunicor with me. I don't really remember what the actual traits of the houses are supposed to be, but my "joking" descriptions are pretty true. Nordons almost all play Quidditch or they like to duel or something super active. Pollivers like to cause trouble, create drama, and think they rule the school. And we Dunicors are a mixture of smarties, artists, and musicians.

Now, I'm not exactly sure how the new school I'm going to will work as far as houses go, but I do know that it's called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The letter I got about it yesterday said that there are four houses, Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. The "headmaster" (I guess that's what they call the principal) wrote to me personally and said that on the first day of school (which is September 1st) I'll be sorted into my house with all the first years. Before that, however, I'll be getting a test in the mail to find out what classes I'm eligible for.

I'm not nervous about the test part, I'm usually just fine when it comes to testing, but I'm really nervous that they might teach totally different things than what I've learned..

Here there are about 7 main subjects:

Spells, which is the most boring class I've ever had. All we do is memorize spells. There's a different class for actually using the spells. Same teacher, but different classes...?

That class is called Incantations. Why we need those to be separate classes.. I don't know.

There's my favorite class, Transfiguration, we get to transform things into other things and it's awesome.

The study of Potions is pretty lame to me, but I do it just fine.

Defensive Magic is exactly as it sounds.

History of Magic, I lied about Spells being the most boring. This class was so boring I forgot it existed until I was going through my schedule in my head.

And finally, a class which I enjoyed fairly well, Herbology. It's a lot of memorization but it can be fun sometimes. I really liked my teacher, Mrs. Shrum. She was really funny.

Other than those 7, we could choose two electives, I chose Astronomy and Music. I don't sing or anything, but I do play flute. Sydney took Music with me because she's a good singer and I think she also took Magical Animal Care. I wanted to take that, but I thought Astronomy looked cooler. I hope that I can take Astronomy at Hogwarts. I could do without Music because I'm really sick of playing my flute. I mostly stayed in the class because Sydney was in it.

Speaking of Sydney, I think she'll be getting here soon, so I'm going to have to stop writing for today, Diary. It was nice meeting you and telling you everything. I hope we'll be good friends.

Sincerely, Claire.


	2. Chapter 2

July 31, 1994.  
Dear Diary,

I have officially unpacked everything. We've been here for about two weeks and I'm only just now finished with unpacking. I've been forced into the smaller room while Jenna gets the really big room. I argued with my parents for a good three days on that. Their reasoning is that I'm going to school soon so there's no reason for me to have a big room..

Jenna always gets what she wants, though. My mom asked me about getting a pet, if I wanted an owl, toad, rat, or cat because that's what I can take with me to Hogwarts.. I said that I want a cat and automatically Jenna started whining about how _she_ wants a cat. No surprise, guess what Jenna is getting..

I think it's for the better, though. Since Jenna's getting a cat, I'll get an owl. If I get an owl, I'll be able to send letters to Sydney. Oh, speaking of owls, there's supposed to be some special owl coming in the next week to deliver my test. The owl is special because it'll be watching me to make sure I don't cheat. Not that I would, but I understand the concern.

To be honest, I kind of forgot all about the test during the move. I rode a plane for the first time and that's not something I want to do again (so scary!). Then, when we arrived at our new house, there was a LOT to clean up. There were cobwebs everywhere and SPIDERS... Oh, I **hate** spiders. Then the toilet that's in my and Jenna's bathroom broke and it's been pretty stressful on my parents. I wanted to just wave my wand to fix everything but of course, that's forbidden and I don't want to be in trouble right away.

Oh, just to clarify, I am TERRIFIED of getting in trouble. I follow the rules and try my hardest to not get noticed by anyone. My brother is the complete opposite. He's always been a trouble maker and I think he always will be. He stayed in America because he has his own apartment and is going to college. He's 20. Oh and Jenna is 10, by the way. I don't think Jenna really cares if she gets in trouble or not, she's just a really big crybaby who always gets what she wants.

There's one thing that she wanted but she didn't get, though, and that's being a witch. She's so ridiculously jealous of me being a witch and I think that's why my parents give her whatever she wants. I mean, technically she could be a witch and just not know it yet, but she hasn't had even a little bit of a hint of magic happen. I mean, my parents used to call me Matilda because weird unexplainable things would always happen around me.

Once when I was 8, a boy told me that I was ugly and I just remember being so mad for the rest of the day. I had thought of ways to get back at him, but I ended up not wanting to get in trouble. So, at recess, I was on the see-saw with my friend and I saw that that boy was on the swing. I remember thinking that I really wanted him to just fall off the swing, and then BAM, out of nowhere he fell off. I mean, I thought that maybe it was just a coincidence, but it wasn't.

Other things such as the garbage bag breaking when my mom nagged me for not helping, flowers sprouting up out of the ground when I was happy and playing outside, and some things that happened to my siblings (that I still pretend were just coincidences so that I don't get in trouble) also happened. Jenna is just ordinary. I've asked her if anything like that has ever happened and it hasn't so, tough luck for her.

I actually do like it here. The weather is so much cooler here than in Texas. I'm from Texas, by the way. Katy, Texas, just outside of Houston. And just to say, no I don't wear cowboy boots or speak with a country accent. I have a pretty neutral American accent I think, because my mom is from Texas and my dad is from New York. Mom had a country accent before meeting my dad and Dad had a northern accent before meeting my mom. I guess along the way, they both developed the same accent, which is pretty much no accent at all.

That's something that I'm afraid of, though. What if my accent morphs into a british accent? I don't want it to but at the same time, I do... I'll try not to lose my American accent, but I'm sure over time it'll fade..

But, anyway, the weather is very different. In Texas, it would probably be between 90-100 degrees. Here in England, it's only about 70 degrees. That's in Fahrenheit, of course. Here they use Celsius and I haven't learned that yet, but I'm sure I will.

I'm not looking forward to switching currencies. Already it's been a hassle to switch from dollars to pounds. I don't even want to know what it's going to be like to switch from pounds to whatever wizard currency is here. At Phoenix Dale, there wasn't much of a difference. Twenty-five US cents equalled one wizarding Cad. A Cad is paper money. It's the only thing there is, no cents, just Cads. So there wasn't ever any change to fish for and I really liked that. I don't particularly like coins very much.

Aside from everything else, I don't know how much I'll write in this because I'm going to study for my test. I'm also going to get my hair cut soon. I was going to cut it all off, but since it's pretty chilly here, I'll keep it long. I'm just getting a trim.

I'm trying to think if there's anything else I can tell you... Hmmm...

I can't think of anything else, so I'll write later. Thanks for being here for me, Diary.

Sincerely, Claire.


	3. Chapter 3

August 17, 1994.  
Dear Diary,

It's currently 10 PM and I'm pretty tired. Today was a long day, but I wanted to write about it anyway. It's been a couple weeks since I've written anything. I took my test and got my results back. I had the option to be in fourth or fifth year classes. Fifth year is the year that they take a big test called O.W.L.'s, so I chose to be in fourth year. He gave me the option because according to my age, I should be a fourth year, but my scores were that of a fifth year. It wasn't so much advanced that he thought I should be in fifth year classes, though.

Since I chose to do fourth year classes, there was a list of supplies hand delivered by a woman named McGonagall. She said she's the transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts and I told her that was my favorite subject. She seemed happy about that and we got along well. She showed my family and I to a place in London called Diagon Alley. We traveled by floo powder, which isn't a new thing to us as that's how we got to the car lot that took me to Phoenix Dale. But, we went to a place called the Leaky Cauldron and Miss McGonagall showed Mom and Dad how to gain access to Diagon Alley from there. We got my books, my owl, my uniform, supplies, and dress robes. Miss McGonagall said that usually that wasn't on the list, but this year there was going to be something special for all the students.

I don't know what that meant, but she was nice and I had a day full of shopping. The wizarding currency is a nightmare. It's all coins! I'm sure I'll get used to it, but there's three coins: sickles, knuts, and galleons. I let my mom and dad do all the paying so I didn't have to deal with it. But, after we got done shopping, we went back home via floo network again.

That brings me to now and I'm currently trying to organize all of the things I got, including my owl and dress.

I'm really excited about my owl. He's brown and white and a little smaller than your average owl. I've decided to name him Oscar. I just finished writing Sydney a letter and I'll be sending Oscar off with it in the morning.

My dress is really pretty, its floor length and dark purple. The neck like is a V-neck and it has a little piece of fabric protecting my boobs from spilling out. The waist band has sparkles and the rest is just flowy. It looks really good on me, so that's all that mattered. That's what took the longest all day. About 2 hours to find the right dress.

So, that's what happened today. I have everything I need for school and now all I have to is pack my normal clothes, which I'll probably do next week. Only about two weeks until it starts and I'm getting more and more nervous everyday. We'll see what the future holds and until then, good night!

Sincerely, Claire.


	4. Chapter 4

September 1, 1994.  
Dear Diary,

I'm currently on the train to Hogwarts. I'm sitting in a cart with a girl who offered for me to sit with her. It's just me and her. She's really pretty, but a bit weird. She has long blonde curly hair and is wearing earrings shaped like radishes. Her name is Luna Lovegood. She's in her third year and she welcomed me to England before I even told her I'm new to this country. I'm guessing she could just tell by the accent.

We talked for a little bit about Hogwarts. I asked her a few questions like what the classes are like and she told me that they're all lovely except Potions is always a bit of a downer because the teacher (Snape I think she said was his name) is always in a bad mood. I asked her about the houses and she said she is in the one named Ravenclaw. She said Ravenclaw is the house of the wise, Hufflepuff is the house of the hard-working, Gryffindor is the house of the brave, and Slytherin is the house of the cunning. By the sounds of it, I'm going to guess that I'll be in Ravenclaw. It would be nice to know someone before I get sorted anyway.

The lady pushing the candy cart came by and I didn't get anything even though I'd really like to try a chocolate frog. We have chocolate bunnies in America that resemble the muggle chocolate bunnies, but ours hop to life. I'm sure that's what the frogs do here. I guess I'll find out later.

To my relief, Luna didn't want anything either, so it spared me that awkwardness of wanting her food. Right now she's reading a magazine titled as The Quibbler. She's reading it upside down, though, so I feel like I should say something to her about it..

* * *

I asked her why she was reading it like that and she showed me that it's written upside down. I asked her why and she told me it's to keep the mind alert. ... She also told me that her dad is the editor of that magazine. I asked what it's about and she said that it tells the truth, unlike the Daily Prophet which is their wizarding newspaper.

This is kind of how our conversation went..

Me: "What is the Daily Prophet lying about?"

Luna: "It's not saying anything about you-know-who returning."

I'm totally lost at this point, right? I don't know who returned, so I thought I'd ask.

Me: "I'm sorry, I don't know who you're referring to. Who is.. You-know-who?"

Luna seemed really surprised. I mean, it was as if I asked this girl what a wand is or something of common sense. She wasn't rude or anything, she just said: "You-know-who is the dark wizard that tried to kill Harry Potter when he was a baby."

Okay, I don't know what in the hell this girl is trying to say to me and I felt like if I asked who Harry Potter is or why this you-know-who guy wanted to kill him, she would think that I'm the dumbest person alive. So, I just said, "Ohh, yeah. I know who you're talking about now. It's a good thing that your dad is telling the truth about him, then."

Luna smiled proudly, but to be honest I still had no clue what the heck I had just said.

We're almost to the castle, though, so I'll write back later about what house I get sorted into and stuff. Wish me luck!

Sincerely, Claire.


	5. Chapter 5

September 3, 1994.  
Dear Diary,

First of all, I was sorted into Gryffindor which was a big surprise for me, but my roommates are nice so that's good. Their names are Lavender, Parvati, Hermione, and Fay. I don't particularly like Lavender or Parvati just because they seem like the type of girls who always gossip, but Fay seemed chill and Hermione's pretty cool.

Second of all, I've learned _quite_ a lot. Harry Potter is my age and he's in Gryffindor. In fact, Hermione is one of his best friends. Also, You-know-who's real name is Voldemort and he's a very very bad wizard who has a gang of killer dark wizards to do his bidding called Death Eaters. When Harry was only a baby, Voldemort killed Harry's parents and tried to kill him too, but somehow Harry deflected the killing curse Voldemort tried to kill him with and instead, messed Voldemort up big time. They don't know what Luna Lovegood was talking about him coming back because apparently Voldemort has been MIA for a while now.

Hermione said the only reason Luna might think that is because at the Quidditch World Cup over the summer, there was a Dark Mark in the sky and that's _his_ mark. So, for some reason his followers are getting together again and wreaking havoc. Also, Luna Lovegood has the nickname of Loony Lovegood. Poor thing. I hope I don't get a mean nickname.

Third of all, if one more person asks me to do a british accent, I might scream. I'm terrible at accents. I have my accent and that's it. Nothing else. Also, I've had to explain how things work at Phoenix Dale three times now. Everyone is giving me so much attention, I think I might have a panic attack. I can't handle this much. It makes me way too nervous.

Other than the bad stuff, there has been a couple good things. There's a boy named Neville Longbottom who is really cute. I hear he gets made fun of a lot, though, which is a shame because I think he's adorable. I actually think I might try to talk to him later when I go to lunch.

My classes are fine so far. Well, other than Potions, like Luna said. Professor Snape (not Mister Snape like I would say at Phoenix Dale) is very mean and picked on Harry a lot in particular. I haven't gotten the chance to talk to Harry, but he has been in one of the crowds that's constantly surrounding me. Seriously. I need them to stop..

I wrote a letter to Sydney about my first day and sent it to her. Since I've had Oscar, communication with her has been simple. Sydney said that she doesn't know who to hang out with anymore since we usually would be together. I suggested that she go talk to Jack (the guy she's had a crush on since first year) but she refuses. I see the way Jack looks at her and I don't see why she doesn't give him a chance, he's obviously into her. But she said that Patrick asked about me. (Patrick is a crush I've had for a while.) It made me pretty sad for a couple days after I got that message, but I'm over it. Phoenix Dale started a few weeks ago, so I've had time to get over myself before coming here.

As far as friends go, I think I'll ask Hermione about anything. She seems to know a lot, so I'll ask her what I want to know. Other than her, I haven't really gotten to know anyone else. But, like I said, that Neville kid seems pretty cool, so I think I'm going to do my homework and then grab some lunch. I'll write later.

Sincerely, Claire.


	6. Chapter 6

September 8, 1994.  
Dear Diary,

In Defense Against the Dark Arts, the new teacher, Moody, demonstrated some pretty horrific things. He went over the three "unforgivable curses" and I can see why they're called that. Neville seemed especially uncomfortable because of them. Moody asked him to tea after the class, actually.

I talked to Neville last week when I said I was going to and he was very nice, but pretty quiet. I asked him if we could be friends and he agreed! Yay! We've eaten a majority of our meals together and we've talked about working on some assignments together. He doesn't really talk too much, I do the majority of the talking, but I don't get the vibe that he wants me to go away, so it's all good.

I asked him if he was okay after he was done having tea and he said he was fine but he seems really distracted. I won't press the issue now, but I've been trying to cheer him up. I think I might ask him about chocolate frogs to get his mind off of whatever is bothering him.

Oh, as far as the attention I got for being new, it's faded because soon enough I won't be the only foreigner anymore. Hogwarts is apparently hosting a tournament called the "Triwizard Tournament". Basically, two foreign schools will be arriving on October 30th and one "champion" from each school will be competing in tasks that will take place throughout the rest of the year. Prof. Dumbledore (the headmaster) says that you have to be 17 years old to be eligible and that's fine by me, because there's no way I'd ever think about entering anyway.

There are twins that seemed pretty bummed out about that, though and I hear those two are the masters of mischief. Their names are Fred and George. Their hair is the same color as Patrick's, though and that makes me miss him. I wonder if I should write to him and see how he's doing.. I mean, he did ask about me after all.

Aside from that, I haven't really had much time to do anything else except eat, work, and sleep. It's actually pretty late right now, so I think I'm going to get to sleep. I'll write back later.

Sincerely, Claire.


	7. Chapter 7

September 9, 1994.  
Dear Diary,

Hermione told me about this club she's started. She calls it S.P.E.W. Which stands for The Society for the Protection of Elvish Welfare. She seems really fired up about it, but to be honest, I don't even know what Elves do. She explained to me that their enslaved and it does seem wrong, but Ron said that House Elves are supposed to be that way. Ron is the brother of those twins I talked about yesterday. He, Hermione and Harry have their own little clique and rumor has it (according to Lavender Brown, the bitchiest girl I think I've ever met) they get into a lot of trouble together.

But anyway, I have no clue why Hermione has her panties in a wad, but I want to be a good friend, so I support her by giving her two sickles and in exchange she gave me a badge. It's not a bad looking badge or anything, I put it on my backpack actually. I think it looks nice.

Other than S.P.E.W., today I asked Neville about chocolate frogs like I said I would. He seemed surprised that I had never heard of them and bought one to show me. It's exactly what I thought, so that's cool. It also seemed to get his mind off of whatever had been bothering him.

He's so cute. I really like spending time with him. Even though he doesn't say much, he is good company. He actually asked me about America. It really bugged me last week when everyone kept asking about it, but with him, I was happy to explain it to him. He was especially intrigued that I'm a muggleborn. He asked about my family and I told him about Jenna and how annoying she is. I asked him if he has any siblings and suddenly he seemed to get really sad and told me he didn't. Poor thing, he must be lonely sometimes probably.

Oh, I also wrote a letter for Patrick today. I haven't sent it yet and I'm not sure if I will or not. It isn't anything fancy it just says that I miss our music class (he's a saxophone player). It also tells him a little about Hogwarts and how there isn't a music class to take here. (Thank goodness.) But I mean, it's not very long or anything but I don't want to stay hung up on him. I'm really digging Neville so I'd like to move on.. But Patrick was just so cute and we hugged a lot.. He smelled so good.. He told me I smell good..

OH! I need to snap out of it! Even if something did happen between Patrick and I now, it wouldn't be any good. I'm _not_ going back to America so there's no point in staying hung up on a guy that could've had me the whole time I was there.

*sigh* I'm making such a big deal out of this when all he did was ask about me. I think I'm gonna rip up that stupid letter and only write to Sydney.

On another, less annoying and desperate sounding note, I don't think I ever said anything about what classes I'm taking. I'm taking Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination (fortune telling, basically), History of Magic (so freaking boring), Potions, Charms (which is Spells and Incantations put into one class, YESS!), Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts.

They're all pretty cool. We do the same type of thing as Phoenix Dale. We go to the class as year within the house. So, all the fourth year Gryffindors go to class together. And every class we have with a different house. For instance, Potions we have with fourth year Slytherins, Herbology we have with fourth year Hufflepuff, etc.

You know, that brings me to another point. The houses here are kinda the same deal here at Hogwarts. I've already learned that Syltherins are jerks, Ravenclaws are smarties, Hufflepuffs are kinda all over, basically musicians, artists, good guys, it would've made sense for me to be in either Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, but Gryffindor! Gryffindor. You will never guess. Gryffindor is like the jocks! Why the heck am I in this house?! I don't understand at all! I mean, they're supposed to be the brave or whatever, but seriously! There's a lot of jocks! I'm so confused. But, I guess I have to roll with it.

Anyway, it's getting late and I should probably do my homework so I don't have anything to do over the weekend.

Sincerely, Claire.


	8. Chapter 8

October 1, 1994.

Dear Diary,

I haven't written in a long time. I've been busy with class, homework, and hanging out with Hermione. She's been trying to recruit lots of people for her S.P.E.W club. She has had a couple of meetings but only Ron, Harry, and I showed up.

Since Hermione does a lot of studying, she's left me alone with Ron and Harry quite a bit. At first, I would leave them alone and talk to Neville, but one day they asked if I could help them with Astronomy (it's one of my favorite classes).

They are pretty funny, those two. Ron is kinda cute too. They asked me about my friends back in America because I told Ron that one of my friends has red hair like him. I mean, I didn't tell them I had a huge crush on Patrick (the friend with red hair I was talking about) but I did tell them about him and Sydney. We also talked about family. Ron has a little sister who gets everything she wants, too so we talked about that a lot.

I actually met his little sister. She's a third year and her name is Ginny. It's funny, Ginny, Jenna. They sound similar. But yeah, I like hanging out with Ron. Harry's really sarcastic and I like that because I'm quite sarcastic myself (in case you haven't noticed).

To be honest, the only reason I'm writing today is because I realized that it's October and I hadn't written in a long time.

My first month here at Hogwarts has gone really well.I mean, there isn't much music so that kind of sucks, but I think I'll start asking around how people listen to music here.

The only bad thing that's happened was some Slytherin jerk-off called me a mudblood. I didn't know what that means, but I asked Hermione and she said it's a mean name for someone who is muggleborn. What an ass. The kid who called me it is named Parkinson. I can't remember her first name. I'm pretty sure she's just jealous because the boy she drools over asked me about America. But once he found out I was muggleborn, he wanted nothing to do with me. I mean, he was nice at first sort of. He just asked me if there were a lot of pure bloods. To which I told him no and he pranced away like the little queen he is. That boy's name is Malfoy.

But other than that little scene, I've had an awesome time. I really like my classes and friends. The teachers I'm not the biggest fan. I love Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, but Professor Moody, Snape, and Trelawney, I'm not extremely fond of.. Oh, There is Professor Hagrid. He's like a giant teddy bear. He reminds me of my dad a bit.

Anyway, I'm going to stop writing. Until next time.

Sincerely, Claire.


	9. Chapter 9

October 30, 1994

Dear Diary,

It's been almost a month. There's been quite the bustle around the castle. The foreign students came today, and tomorrow night, the "Triwizard champions" will be chosen. The Triwizard Tournament is why the foreigners came here. It's the three schools all against one another. I think I wrote about it before but just in case you forgot.

Other than that, I've been hanging out with Neville a bit more. We convinced him to start coming to the S.P.E.W. club meetings, so we have been spending lots of time together. It's a weird little group to have. Me, Neville, Hermione, Harry, and Ron. We're all so different. Well, except that I've got them all excited about my American muggle music.

I asked around about music in the past few weeks and the music collections we can listen to are only records. See, I had my mom send me some good music (she has the best taste in music) and all she sent me were mix tapes. At one of the S.P.E.W. meetings, I asked my friends about playing muggle music. Hermione said that muggle things don't work in Hogwarts. Then Harry agreed, but Ron directed me to his brothers, Fred and George.

So, that night in the common room, I went to talk to them.

"Hi," I said.

"Well, hello there, Curly," one of them said, nagging about my hair.

I rolled my eyes, but proceeded, "I was told that you two know how I can play muggle music in Hogwarts."

They gave each other a sideways smirk then looked back at me, "What kind of contraption do you need?"

I raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"What little music thing do you have? The box or the disc?"

"Oh! I have a cassette, it's like a little box I guess."

One of the boys said, "I'll be back George."

The one who was apparently George nodded and Fred was off. I asked, "How do you guys even have that stuff?"

He laughed and spoke a little quietly, "Well, our father deals with muggle stuff all the time. And he loves to try to figure out how they work and add magic to them. We've snatched a few that we thought might be helpful to our fellow students."

I narrowed my eyes, something seemed fishy, "Well isn't that generous of you."

He laughed loudly and said, "Oh, we're not just going to _give_ it to you. We'll let you have it.. for a price."

My face dropped, "But-"

George interrupted, "Just wait until Fred gets back, then we'll talk about it."

So, we waited and then Fred came back with a small boom box.

George said to Fred, "She was asking about payment, but I haven't told her anything because I wanted to make sure you were thinking what I'm thinking."

Fred scoffed, "I'm always thinking what you're thinking."

They both laughed, but then turned to me. George said, "What we want from you is a caterpillar and a bat tongue."

I looked at them like they were absolutely nuts and demanded, "Why do you need those things?"

Fred said, "Well, if you must know, we need them for a potion. And we don't want to be the ones to get our hands dirty."

George added, "We do that enough."

I said, "So where am I supposed to get these things?"

My mind was pounding at this point. I don't want to do anything that will get me in trouble! I hate trouble!

They told me I could easily find a caterpillar outside, but I'd have to get a bat tongue from Snape.

Long story short, Ron, Harry, and Hermione really helped me out with the bat tongue. Hermione and I were asking Prof. Snape about homework while Ron and Harry snuck in and took one. It was quite simple and quick. As for the caterpillar, I talked to Neville about what kinds of plants attract them and he helped me find one in no time.

That was a really nice day, when Neville and I were looking for the caterpillar. He showed me the giant squid in the Black Lake right outside of Hogwarts. He also picked a flower and gave it to me. When I asked why he picked it, he said that it would be dying soon anyway because of the change in season. Since it's fall now, it's gotten ridiculously cold. I haven't seen the temperature but I've already taken out my scarf, gloves, and hat.

Anyway, I got the items in a couple of days, then traded George and Fred. I was so happy that night, I demanded an S.P.E.W. meeting to be held where it would be quiet. Hermione determined that we should go into the boy's dorm because there we wouldn't get in trouble for playing music.

Hermione was the only one of all of them who knew any of the songs I played. The mix tape my mom gave me that I started them off with had the following:

_Scar Tissue _- Red Hot Chili Peppers  
_Moonage Daydream _- David Bowie  
_Eye of the Tiger_ - Survivor (Hermione knew this one)  
_Barracuda _- Heart (and this one)  
_Killer Queen_ - Queen  
_Heart-Shaped Box_ - Nirvana (Ron really liked this one)  
_Sweet Child O' Mine_ - Guns N' Roses (My dad would sing this song to me when I was a baby)  
_Devil In Disguise _- Elvis Presley (None of them knew who Elvis Presley was!)  
_Hotel California _- Eagles  
_Let's Get It On _- Mavin Gaye (This one was a real hit with everyone, of course) 

Overall, they really liked the music. And to my pleasant surprise, the boom box worked perfectly! After that, Ron made me play _Heart-Shaped Box _several times and I decided that I'm going to give him a Nirvana record for Christmas.

Other than all that, nothing anymore exciting happened. I mean, I got another letter from Sydney. She said that her mom might let her come stay with us for the summer! Also, I got a letter from... Guess... Patrick! I'll tape it in this Diary on the next page.

* * *

Hey, Claire!

I know you're probably busy in England, but I really miss you! So do Robert and Thomas. We always talk about how boring it is without you. I hope you've made some new friends. Is there a music class you take there? If not, do you still play your flute? I hope you haven't tried learning saxophone with anyone else! Remember, I promised that I would teach you. Anyway, sorry this is letter is short. Sydney said that she would attach it with hers when she sent back your owl. I saw him, he's really fluffy and soft. He even let me pet him! But, like I said, I hope you're having fun. Write back soon.

Patrick

* * *

!

Patrick! He wrote me! I about squealed when I saw that the letter was from him!

Neville asked me what I was so happy about and I felt really weird telling the guy I like now about the guy I liked in America. I told Neville that Patrick was just a friend of mine that I thought had forgotten about me, but I think he could tell that I liked him more than just a friend.

I hope that Neville doesn't think that I don't like him because of how I reacted to the letter from Patrick. I'm thinking about telling Neville that I used to like Patrick and I don't anymore. Yeah, I probably will. But anyway, I'm pretty excited about everything. Finally things are going well for me!

Until next time, Diary. Hopefully I'll write more often.

Sincerely, Claire.


End file.
